Toothfairy

This picture makes Elphie look like her head is bigger than her body. While that is somewhat true, it is not entirely the case. I was trying to take a picture of her for the longest time. Finally she sat still and looked at me so here is the result - Madam Elphie Bighead.

Our baby's growing up. :::tear:::  She's started losing her baby teeth. She was chewing on something the other night and for the life of me I had no idea what it was. Finally I went over and she dropped it on the floor. Lo and behold it was one of her teeth. If I didn't know better I would think something was wrong. It's pretty disturbing saving your dog from choking on its own tooth. Now more than ever I assume she's going to be looking for things to chew on. Good thing we got her a gigantic rubber donut with pink frosting and rainbow sprinkles :)

In other news, I can't wait for Fall to finally be here. It's the end of September for crying out loud and it's freaking 103 degrees today! This is probably the one major drawback about living in California - you never see the changing of the seasons. Once it gets below 90 I look forward to finally bringing Elphie to a dog park. It would just be cruel if we brought her now.

Couches and weak bladders

Yes, yes I know...I've been MIA again. Sorry about that. But here I am...and with a new Elphie picture to boot! Woo!

This picture comes after a day of spending it in her crate. We learned that she can't be trusted, even when she's just in the other room by herself, because she went ahead and peed on the couch again. So we spent the majority of Saturday afternoon cleaning up after her mess. :::sigh::: Kids! Sunday we decided to let her out for a bit but not often on the couch. She kept jumping up regardless, though, and we kept pushing her off. Finally I pushed her off and told her to lay down. In her defense, even though she was back on the couch yet again, at least she was laying down!

She is pretty cute, though. Don't tell the hubby, but she won't be off the couch for long ;)

We gave in - Elphie is now allowed on the couch. It was only a matter of time before she got her little paws up there. She's a terrier so she's chock full of energy, literally bouncing off the walls. She's only allowed up there while supervised, specifically when we're playing fetch with her, but she's so incredibly happy. She likes to run from one end of the room to the other to get a running start and then jump and barrel right into my stomach and/or face. That's a little obnoxious. When she's done playing, or when Hubby gives her the "settle down already" look, she'll just dig her nose into the blanket and lay down. It's those times that she's the most cute. You know, when she's calm?

We brought all three of the animals to the vet last Saturday. Elphie received the last of her puppy shots and in four more days she can officially be socialized into the world. We're really excited to bring her to dog parks! I just hope she won't get too overwhelmed or crazy.

I'll post more pictures soon, I promise! (I know I always say that) Have a great weekend everyone!

Elphie's first car ride

I always feel like the mother with the unruly children whenever I go to the vet. Granted I've only had to take cats, but one of the cats (aka Boq) is a real pain in the patootie. And today Hubby and I had to wrangle up all three animals and trek to a brand new vet so that the kids can get their shots. Man was that fun! By the time we got home I could make another animal out of all of the fur on my body. Things went well, though, and everybody is healthy. Elphie has a dandruff problem and the vet says that's abnormal for her age and it's due to the food she eats. We feed her Eukanuba Puppy. I guess it used to be a good brand but then the family sold it to some other company and it's no longer the high quality it was. Of course they gave us a free bag of food to try that you can only purchase at the vet. Funny how that works, huh?

Luckily Elphie is now all done with her puppy shots and within 10 days we can bring her to the dog parks. That will be fun and I can't wait! Hopefully by then the temperature will also get to below 100 degrees. It's been hot as Hates here this month. Craz-y! Because the high for today is 105 we decided to forgo taking her for a walk. She'll just plop down on somebody's yard anyway.

That's all I got for you today. I'm going to have to upload more pictures of Elphie and I'll post them in my next blog. You'll be surprised how big she's gotten!

I'm back!

I know you missed me soooooo much! I appreciate your longing and I missed you, too!

I come back with exciting stories. Ok, not really exciting, but a story. Well more of a "omg I can't believe that happened. Serves me right" type of story. Sometime Friday night, during the overnight while we were in bed, Elphie got out of her play pen. This isn't the first time it's happened and last time there wasn't much damage done at all so that's why I wasn't too upset over it. So after going through my normal Elphie & Me morning routine Saturday I started to play with her. I grabbed her bunny and went to sit on the couch to play tug-o-war with her when I felt something cold and wet. I moved the fleece blanket and what I found were two very big pee stains, one on each cushion. It probably happened hours before, too, so the pee had enough time to saturate the cushion. I wanted to kill her! Needless to say she spent the majority of the morning tied up on the porch. Luckily Hubby was able to yank the fabric off of the cushion and we threw it in the wash. He also sprayed down the foam of the cushion with some No-Go and Febreezed it to Kingdom Come to hopefully deter her from peeing there again. Both of my throw pillows and Hubby's hat were unfortunate casualties of the urinating assault, too. Luckily everything is machine washable. Or if it wasn't, I made it machine washable! We deduced that the way she was getting out was jumping on top of her crate and then over the play pen walls onto the couch, so Hubby fabricated a makeshift wall with some of his old climbing ropes and that seems to be working. Although Elphie is pretty smart so I wouldn't be surprised if she finds another way out soon. But let's hope that won't be the case.

Saturday night Hubby and I went to a birthday party where I had a good conversation with a vet. He heard my story, was understanding of our situation, and suggested we put in a doggy door. He explained that once we start to see the world from Elphie's perspective everything else will get easier. He told me that a couch cushion is like a pee pad - it's very absorbent. I told him about the potty box on our patio and he also suggested getting a kiddie pool and putting soil and sod in it. The grass will grow freely and the dog will be more drawn to living grass. It's an idea, but I honestly don't think our patio is big enough for something that extravagant, especially with our patio furniture and grill already there. The grass in our potty box isn't looking too good, but that could be because we're not taking care of it correctly. I think if I research on how to keep healthy grass it'll last longer and Elphie will be more drawn to using it. She's a snob and likes the fluffy stuff to do her business on. Today I was researching doggy doors, especially the automatic ones because we also don't want the cats getting out, and the one with the best reviews runs about $300 and I don't think that includes the remote collar. But like Bart the Veterinarian said, a one time charge of $300 is better than a monthly charge of $400 for a walker to come every day. It's definitely something to consider.

We're Online!

That's right, folks, we're online...from my living room! I finally got my butt in gear and dug through my closet to find my laptop. Hubby helped give me a refresher course in how to use it (sad I know) so here we are! It's pretty exciting, which is pretty sad. It's times like these that I feel super old.

I had an epiphany yesterday morning. I was in my kitchen feeding my cats and I came across a laser pointer still in its package. I know how much my cats <3 this thing so I ripped it open and allowed them to indulge. Then I thought, "Hey! What a perfect way to get the cats and the dog to interact together!" A little bit later in the afternoon, after Elphie was done eating, I pulled out the laser pointer and stood in a corner where I had all of the animals in sight. I got all three enthralled and before I knew it I had Elphie burning off some of her puppy energy running around the living room chasing the red dot and I had Nessa burning off some calories running up and down the stairs chasing the red dot. I would like to shake the hand of the person who invented this thing. He/She probably had pets of his/her own. I'm glad it's evolved from an annoying toy of teenagers' in a movie theater to entertainment for your pets. This morning I even got Nessa nose-to-nose with Elphie. That's progress, right? I'm sure in another month or two they'll be sniffing at each other without hesitation. I hope at least.

:::sigh:::

I think four months in dog equals two years in human. I feel like Elphie is in her terrible twos. She's being a brat! And I also feel like the progress she's made in house training is moving backwards. I don't understand why this is so hard.

I have to admit that I'm feeling guilty, too. I feel guilty that she's home alone during the day while Hubby and I are at work. I know, logically, that dogs don't have the same emotions that humans do, but that doesn't really alleviate my guilt. I'm sure it doesn't help either that we're still trying to figure out the best place to keep her area and the best way to set it up. Right now we have her playpen and all of its accoutrement in the living room next to our couch. We put her there originally so she wouldn't feel lonely when we're home. But now Hubby is thinking we need to move her down to the kitchen. Because she's a dog, and a puppy no less, she smells and makes a mess. I don't necessarily have a problem with the act of making a mess, it's the smell that accompanies the mess that is getting a little much. We need to open our front door to air out the place on top of spraying three types of air freshener on a daily basis just to mask the smell. At least in the kitchen there's tile flooring so it'll be easier to clean up.

On top of ripping up the pee pads we put down every day, she's starting to eliminate in her crate again. I don't know what to do. Hubby thinks we're giving her too much space in her playpen but I think the problem is she doesn't have enough space in her playpen. Right now her crate is taking up the majority of the room. So what if we switch out her crate with a smaller bed - like the dog carrier - and still keep the pee pads and whatnot in her playpen. That way I feel she'll be more reluctant to go in her bed. I know all of them experts out there say crate training is the easiest and safest way to house train a dog, but honestly it just doesn't work for us. It would be different if I worked closer to home and could leave every day at lunch to let her out. Or if we had extra money to spend on a dog walker. It would even be ok if we combined the two (me or Hubby coming home thrice a week and the dog walker coming twice a week). But since Elphie is still a puppy and does need to go out more than once during the afternoon, this just doesn't seem feasible to us. Not yet at least. Maybe in a few months it could be an option, but right now we have to make due with what we're doing, and I need to be ok with that. Once I become ok with that and I get over the guilt I'll be able to truly enjoy her in my life. I just wish this was so much easier :(

Kids

Since I talk about the kitties almost as much as Elphie, I thought I'd post a couple of pictures of them. They are my kids, too, after all.

Meet Nessa. She's an Orange Tabby with a sweet personality but with an annoying habit of pooping on the floor.

Nessa Rose

This is Boq. I call him Boqthalameu J. That's totally not his real name, but when I'm really annoyed with him, I pretend that it is. He's sweet, too, but his habit is being annoying. All of the time. He's an orange Manx. He doesn't have a tail so we call him the tail-less wonder, amongst other things.

Boq J.

So these are our kids. Our kids for now at least. I'm sure soon enough we'll be adding with a real kid. I can't wait to really be up to my elbows in poop!

I command you to be cute!

Sorry for the break in updates. My parents were in town this weekend so I spent my time with them. I think my mom was more excited to meet Elphie than she was to see me. Sure she gave me a hug and kiss when she walked through the door, but then she made a beeline for the dog and gave her a treat. She didn’t give me a treat.

My mom was able to get Elphie to sit and shake within the 24 hours she visited. It was pretty amazing. She did go through training her own dog from a puppy so I’m sure that helped. I also credit it to the treats. She brought her own dog treats with her and Elphie went insane over them. Now Elphie sits and a raises her paw on her own. It’s pretty darn cute and I can’t do anything else but laugh. Now we’re working on “down” and “stay”. She’s pretty smart so I’m not too worried about it. Who needs training classes when you got a mom and a really smart puppy?!?! I’ve been working with her on the commands every day. She still has the attention span of a pea so we don’t do it too long. But she’s getting the hang of it! The whole “down” concept is a little uncomfortable for her…she just ends up rolling around. But at least she’s down!

The potty box was delivered on Friday afternoon. It’s pretty awesome. It’s a light weight wood box with a laminate floor and you unroll sod into it. I’m not sure if Elphie knows exactly what to do with it yet. She’s gone to the bathroom on it, yes, but she also lays in it and eats the grass, too. Yesterday morning I left her out on the patio as I showered and got ready for work in hopes that she would get used to the box. Hubby said she eventually went in it so that’s a relief. Less of a mess for him to come home to. Of course this morning I went out there to nothing. I guess we’re still within the learning curve. I just want her to like staying out there on her own and not use the patio as punishment. The way I see it is if she thinks outside is bad then she’ll be going inside and we don’t want that. It helps to hang out there with her, too. As long as she’s ignored for a little bit she’ll get to what she’s supposed to do – in theory.

It does get frustrating, though, when I want/need her to go and she doesn’t and then I have to take her out front to go instead. The other night I took her out front as a last ditch effort but unfortunately there was a mom and her two little kids hanging out front (I don’t know what it is, but everybody hangs out front of our complex!) so when they saw Elphie they immediately thought it was play time. On one hand it’s good that she’s being introduced to kids of all ages because it’ll get her used to being around kids, but on the other hand it’s not good when I need her to go to the bathroom before bed and the kids follow us up and down the sidewalk. I’ve tried telling my neighbors that Elphie’s out there for a reason, but they don’t fully understand nor care that I don’t want to talk to them. I’m just too nice. I should just say, “look lady on the phone with your annoying kids petting my dog, I don’t know you nor do I like you so I’m going to take my dog so she can s**t out here, preferably on your shoe, so she doesn’t s**t all over my floor instead. Kthanksbye.” Alas that’ll never happen…so I’ll just continue to grin and bear it.

Away again, away again...jiggity jig.

Hubby and I are taking a little trip up north to Sacramento next weekend. His high school friends are holding an impromptu 10-year high school reunion (more like an 11-year) so he wanted to get in on the reminiscing action. It should be fun, considering we haven't seen his friends for two years, and I've been looking forward to getting out of the house, so I'm pretty excited.

This poses a problem, however - What to do with the dog? Going away for the weekend when you only have cats is completely different. For the most part cats are self-sufficient. As long as you put out enough food and water and don't close them off of their litter box, they'll never know you're gone. There was one week over the Christmas break, though, that we needed to hire a pet sitting company to check in on them every other day. It's a great company and they do everything from scooping litter, to hanging out with your furry buddies, to even bringing in the mail. They offer overnight services, too. Very convenient. But just with everything else, paying a business to come by and house sit can become expensive.

Here I am again - talking about money. But let's face it, money is a huge part of everything. It rules the way we live. I have nightmares on a nightly basis of being chased in the shape of a huge dollar sign ($) by huge dollar bills! This is how much it's on my mind. But just like anything, you have to find a way to manage money. And situations that call for money. So instead of calling the excellent pet sitting company, I decided to ask around and ended up finding a friend of a friend who is willing to house sit for the weekend. She'll take care of the animals and watch our house, all for a reasonable rate. I'm very pleased. The other alternative probably would've cost us double.

The moral of the story? Keep your options opened. And rely on the kindness of friends.

I'm a slacker!

"Why haven't you posted, Mom?

I know I've been slacking a bit on the updates and for that I apologize. I had originally planned to break out my old laptop and to post on a daily basis, but alas that idea has yet to come to fruition. For the moment I'll just wait and post at the most convenient place ever - work. Because what's the use of going to work if you can't do personal stuff, right? Right!

Having a puppy is expensive. I don't mean to be a scrooge or to b*tch about money, but I really didn't think I'd be waving the $$ goodbye on a daily basis. I find myself constantly hitting up the pet store or the pet aisle in various department stores for toys or treats or wee-wee pads or bed pillows for the dog. I know that's mostly my own fault, but honestly I just can't help myself. She's just too cute! Yesterday I had to make sure I picked up some wet cat food so the kitties would still feel loved. I think they appreciated it ;)

We're also doing a ton of laundry on a daily/weekly basis. It's amazing how quickly the living room has begun to stink like dog (a super cute dog, though). We have a few air fresheners scattered amongst the downstairs to try to help but they don't really do anything. The living room now smells of cinnamon, mid-morning breeze, berries, "fresh air", and dog. :::sigh::: Oh well. At least these multiple smells elicit many childhood memories! You know, childhood memories of picking berries in the fresh air mid-morning whilst holding cinnamon sticks and playing with your dog.

We ordered the puppy potty box previously mentioned in the "Hurdles" entry on July 26. Hopefully it'll be delivered on Friday. We'll still take her out for a walk in the morning and evening to allow her to sniff everything and give her exercise, but the potty box will be helpful for the quick "gotta go now, Mom" breaks. And maybe once that arrives we'll let her out in the middle of the night to help control the sleepy time "uh oh" incidents. Maybe. I aint making any promises. Mommies gotta get their beauty sleep, too!

"NO BITE!"

Elphie bit me this morning when we were playing and boy did it hurt! Her little jaw is getting stronger by the day. We were playing tug-of-war with her bunny. I guess she went to bite a piece of it but got my hand instead. Oh, man did I get mad. I yelped, clapped my hands and said, "NO!" very sternly. The poor thing had no idea what was going on. She just laid there looking at me. I then took the advice of the book and walked away into another room and closed the door. This is supposed to let them know that they did something bad and that their human friend is upset and doesn't want to play with them anymore. I don't think she got it 'cuz I could hear her running around. I had to leave for work anyway so when I came back upstairs she was drinking water in her pen so I just shut the gate, let her lick me and said goodbye. I have to admit, though, my hand was throbbing a little bit on my car drive into work.

It's frustrating because I want and need her to understand me better than she does. But she's still so young and we haven't had her for very long so it's going to take some time. But I don't like to wait! Why can't it happen NOW?!

Focus, Elphie, focus!

You know it's really annoying when, after a long day at work, you come home and walk the dog, and all you want is for her to go to the bathroom outside, both #1 and #2, so you can both go back inside, play and relax. But then destiny laughs in your face, because the walk you're on is during prime dog-walking time, and all of your neighbors and their dogs and their kids want to stop you and pet your puppy, because their dogs are no longer puppies, and your puppy is so small and excitable and cute, so then your puppy loses focuses on the task at hand and ends up not going to the bathroom outside, at least not going #2, and then you have to deal with her mess once she makes it inside. Or you have to take her out again shortly after your first walk, because she remembers that, "hey, I was out there for a reason wasn't I?" and then starts sniffing in circles and running to and from the door to let you know that now she's ready to do her duty...literally. Sound familiar?

Puppies are like babies - you show them something shiny, they're absolutely enthralled for 10 minutes, but then they hear a sound or see a cat and they lose focus. After her last walk of the night last night, hubby and I decided to try a little training. First off, Elphie is scared of hubby, probably because he's the disciplinarian, is stricter than I am and doesn't roll around on the floor with her during play time. But after expressing how much I want her to be our dog, hubby started to lighten up and began using high pitched voices and petting her more. She's still pretty scared of him, but I'm hoping with some perseverance she'll start to warm up to him. Anyway, last night we started doing a little training. We tried to get Elphie to sit on command. According to the book, the easiest way to teach 'sit' is to keep her on a leash and use a tasty nibblet as incentive. You get her interested in the treat and then slowly raise the treat above her nose/head and the moment her butt hits the ground you say 'SIT' and give her the treat. Then you praise her by petting her and saying, "Good sit". So hubby tried this twice and then I tried it twice. She didn't really get it. I think by that time she was tired and so over treats that she just didn't care. But the funny thing is, she just kinda sits anyway. When we put her leash on for the training exercise, she would just sit down, so hubby had to lift her hiney up in order to teach her how to sit! I guess that's good?

We're also trying to teach her how to heel on walks. When she gets really excited and starts running or jumping up and down or distracted by something, we pull on the leash and say "HEEL" a few times and wait until she calms down. She's pretty good at it, but we do have to say it a bunch of times which I'm hoping will lessen the more we stick with it. I'm hoping, too, that once we sign up for the training lessons we'll learn more effective ways of training. Right now I think she's just really young and easily distracted! But gosh! Watching her do her business outside feels like winning the lottery! You feel so accomplished and you just want to pat yourself on your back and tell yourself good job. And give yourself a treat. Which I do. Many, many treats.

Hurdles

It’s amazing how much Elphie has grown in only the few short weeks we’ve had her. Her ears are becoming perkier and her teeth are getting sharper. It actually hurts when she bites now! That’s definitely something we need to train her NOT to do, though. She’s getting a lot more energy, too, which I haven’t decided is a good thing or a bad thing. I try to play with her as much as I can, but I’m an old woman and after 10 minutes of rolling a tennis ball across the floor I’m pretty pooped.

One of the hurdles we’re overcoming is the whole housebreaking hurdle. Our situation isn’t ideal as we both are out of the house for 10+ hours a day, so crate training was kind of out of the question. If we crate trained without a dog walker (this would cost a good chunk of change per week if we had one) she would still go in her crate and would be sitting in it all day, which would be counterproductive. Instead, we decided to pick up an exercise pen and set it up in our living room. Inside we put her crate, some wee-wee pads and a water bowl. This allows her to step out of her crate to relieve herself and have the opportunity to keep her area clean. With a little bit more room to move around, she’s also able to play with her toys outside of her bed, too. It’s a pretty good set-up if you ask me. It’s like she has her own room.

I never thought I’d get so excited over a dog peeing outside. It took us a little while to catch on, but we both realized that Elphie likes to do her business on grass. With no grass in the immediate vicinity of our place, with only a concrete patio, we got so frustrated and didn’t understand why she would just sit there and stare at us when we put her out. We then paid attention and noticed that she cooperated when we took her out front of our building where there was grass. Dun dun duuuuunnnnn! Pee! Unfortunately that’s incredibly inconvenient. Luckily hubby did a little internet surfing and came across a company within the Southern California area that sells potty boxes. It’s pretty much a wood box with a liner on the bottom and you can add sod and grass patches. Perfecto! They make custom boxes, too, so I can email them and have them make one to our custom dimensions. This will be so much better than taking her out front at 10:00 every night before bed. And when she gets older she’ll be able to hold it a lot longer and then maybe we will start the crate training method. Right now, though, this is easier for all of us.

Now if only she’ll start to do #2 on command…

First off, I'd like to give a big shout out to my two followers. Hi two followers!! Thanks for reading along! I'll try to continue to entertain :)

I'm starting to see Elphie's personality shine through. I noticed that she really loves people and gets excited to see someone new. If she had a tail to wag, she'd be able to propeller herself to the moon! I took her for a short walk this morning and we ran into a very nice woman who was walking her dog. Elphie got extremely excited and started jumping all over her, who in turn got really excited and starting speaking a completely different language to Elphie in a high pitched voice. The entire time I was having an imaginary conversation in my head, telling the woman I hope she wasn't saying anything I didn't want to hear. Watch Elphie start responding to Hebrew or Arabic quicker than to English (we live in a highly populated Jewish community). That would be my luck. I do enjoy - and am grateful for -  the socialization with the neighbors, though. It's nice to be able to have something to talk about with complete strangers. Having a dog to walk also gets me out of the house, too, which is something I really need to do more often. I tend to suffer from cabin fever so it's nice to break up the monotony of work to home, home to work. And I'm sure before I know it we'll be bringing her to parks, on car rides and on camping trips. How exciting!

Training

I think we're going to sign Elphie up for some training sessions at good 'ol Petco. I used to work at Petco (ah, what fond memories...) so I know their training sessions are pretty reputable. Their prices and times are reasonable, too, which doesn't hurt.

None of the dogs in my life were ever formally trained. We just never thought to go through an official class, probably because we just didn't want to spend the money. So my family just kinda trained our dogs how we could. As long as they did their business outside and sat down when we asked we were happy campers. And honestly that's really all I'm interested in for Elphie, too. I just want her to be able to sit, stay and come when she's called. Oh, and go to the bathroom outside. That's a big one!

There is one trick Elphie does know how to do...she knows how to fall asleep in my lap on command. Now that's talent!

"Now, Elphie, SLEEP! Good girl!"

If you scratch my back, I'll scratch yours!

Have you ever tried bartering with your dog? You know...you tell her that if she does something for you, you'll do something for her? And then you get so frustrated when she doesn't cooperate, and you have no idea why she's not cooperating, because, come on, that deal you made with her is a really good one? Because that treat is mighty tasty and that belly rub is nothing to sneeze at, especially because you give excellent belly rubs (just ask your cat)?  Come on...admit it! We've all done it! Especially when you're exhausted. Like me.

According to the book that I'm reading, puppies like routine. If you wake them up, take them out and feed them at the same time every day, they'll learn that everything happens on a schedule. Because I'm mold able and believe everything I read, I started a routine. Monday through Friday I get up at 6:30, put her out, clean up any mess she's made throughout the night (which is sometimes a big one), bring her back in, feed her, play with her, put her back in her den, take a shower and get dressed, take her for a walk, clean up any mess she's made between the time I bring her back in and take her for a walk (which usually consists of a chewed up wee-wee pad), and finally put her back in her den so I can go to work. Sheesh. I'm tired just thinking about it!

This book has been helpful, though. It's good to read something specifically dedicated to your dog. They might as well have titled it, "To Monkeerulz, With Love, Elphie <3" At least I'm able to understand a little bit about what goes on in that puppy head of hers!

It's not such an awful thing, getting up early, but it does hurt a bit when I see hubby sleeping soundly when the alarm goes off. But I just remember that setting a routine will (hopefully) make the whole house-breaking bit easier and quicker. Operative word here being 'hopefully'. I've also decided to make the hubby stick to the same routine I've created. Partly because I don't want to confuse the pup with a different schedule, but mostly because misery loves company and I want him to be exhausted, too :)

Elphie

Elphie on her second day home.

Meet Elphie, an 11 week old Boston Terrier puppy. Her hobbies include sniffing, snoring, snorting, farting, and gliding across wood flooring. She also enjoys tormenting cats – specifically my cats, Nessa and Boq. Is it wrong that I get a kick out of watching her chase them up the stairs? Even though they’re both bigger than her and could probably pin her to the floor if they wanted, they both dart out of sight, scared silly. It’s also pretty fun watching them sliding across the wood floor, too.

I have to admit that Elphie became part of the family by impulse. I mean, I thought about getting a dog, and both my husband and I talked briefly about it, but it wasn’t anything discussed in length. But one day two weekends ago there we were – perusing the puppies on display in the mall – and suddenly I started to think how incredibly adorable these little puddles of fur were and my heart just sank. That’s when I realized…I wanted a dog.

And what’s the point of getting a dog if you’re not going to get a puppy? Puppies are adorable and playful and they fall asleep in your lap! Who wouldn’t want that? I guess it didn’t dawn on me that puppy=baby and baby=time, patience and wee-wee pads. Lots of wee-wee pads.

After the initial shock of “oh my gosh what the heck was I thinking getting a dog because I work a full-time job and have nowhere to keep her” wore off, Elphie started to fit right in. The hubby and I spent a load of $$ at PetSmart (you’re welcome economy) to become fully equipped with everything you need for a puppy. Crate? Check. Doggie pillow? Check. Play pen? Check. Chew toys? Check. Wee-wee pads? Check. Pet mess cleaner? Check. Book on Boston Terriers to read so that you don’t screw up your new pet? Check!  I feel pretty prepared. Now if only PetSmart would hurry up and invent that puppy time machine, so I can fast forward to when Elphie is fully house broken, I’d be eternally grateful.